Venice, Aug.6

Aug. 6, 2012
Venice, Italy
Today, a local guide named Lisa took us on a tour of Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace.
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The Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square in English) is the main public square of Venice. All other squares in the city are known as campi (campo in the singular tense). The Piazza features the famous cathedral of St. Mark’s Basilica (Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di Marco in Italian) at the eastern end, which is the one of the most famous examples of Byzantine architecture in the world; St. Mark’s Campanile, which is the bell tower of the basilica and stands alone in a corner of the square near the front of the church; and the Clock Tower on the north side of the square. The clock is built above an archway over a main street called the Merceria, which leads to the Rialto, the financial and commercial center of Venice.

The long Gothic-style arcade along the north side of the square, known as the Procuratie Vecchie, used to accommodate the offices of the Procurators of St. Mark’s, while the arcade on the west side is known as the Napoleonic Wing because it was rebuilt by Napoleon in 1810 when he took over Italy. The arcade on the south side of the square, known as the Procuratie Nuove, is built in the Classical style. It was meant to be a palace for Napoleon’s stepson, but now houses the Museo Correr (Correr Museum). There’s also a famous café on the ground floor called Caffe Florian, which is one of the oldest coffee houses in continuous operation (since 1720). We were tempted to go there, but were warned it was one of the most expensive places on the square.

The Doge’s Palace was the official residence of the Doge of Venice, the chief authority of the Republic of Venice. It also housed the courtrooms and the prisons. The palace is located in the Piazzeta di San Marco (the “little square of St. Mark”) adjacent to the south side of the large square, and is built in Venetian Gothic style. It’s very elaborate inside, with lots of marble, carved and painted ceilings, pure gold gilding, and wall frescoes. You can tell the Doges wanted to demonstrate how powerful and wealthy Venice was through the care they lavished on their civic buildings.

The tour ended with a glass-blowing demonstration at a glass shop whose name I can’t remember, which is just as well because we didn’t buy anything there. The glass-blowing demo itself was fascinating, but after that they ushered us into their showroom for the obligatory sales pitch. That’s the one big drawback with tour companies – they usually have arrangements with local merchants to bring their groups into the stores and try to get them to buy. I liked several pieces of the glass jewelry I saw and they also had some very nice wine glasses, but everything seemed extremely expensive. Gary convinced me we could probably find something made of Venetian glass for more reasonable prices if we looked around (it turns out he was right).

Lots of the big hotels in Venice offer boat rides over to the island of Murano, where the best Venetian glass is made, but I’ve heard these tours can be scams. The glass factories there do a very hard sell, and if you don’t buy anything, they’ve been known to inform you that you’re on your own getting back to your hotel. I’m glad our tour company kept us away from there.

After the guided tour, we were free to spend the rest of the day as we wanted. Gary and I decided to skip touring St. Mark’s Basilica because the line was too long. Instead, we went to the top of the bell tower (luckily it has an elevator), where we saw a fantastic panorama of the city in all directions.

We also viewed the art work, furniture, and other items in the Correr Museum on the upper floors of the Procuratorie Nuove on the southeast side of St. Mark’s Square. We then split a small pizza marinara for lunch at a little pizzeria off the square whose name I also can’t remember. Pizzas here have a much thinner crust than in the States and are more sparing with the toppings, but are still very good.

After that, we walked all the way to the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal to browse through the luxury shops and restaurants located there, then did some souvenir shopping at some of the less expensive shops closer to San Marco. We were able to find a wine stopper of Venetian glass for much less than that glass shop would have charged us.

Speaking of shopping, you’ll also see lots of vendors standing on the sides of the streets or in the squares in Italy selling cheap little toys and fake leather handbags. We weren’t tempted by anything they were selling, which was a good thing because we found out later these “vendors” have no license to operate. They run at the first sign of the police, but it doesn’t stop them from setting up again in another street.

The best part of our day was in the early evening when we took the private gondola ride that we had signed up for, which included a bottle of champagne; two musicians (a vocalist and an accordion-player) who serenaded us as we floated along the canals; and a picture of ourselves in the gondola by a professional photographer. You can also take public gondola rides, where you share the cost (and the boat) among 4 to 6 other people, but of course it’s not as romantic. Sure, it’s kind of a hokey, touristy thing to do, but it’s also unique to this city. How can you be in Venice and not ride in a gondola at least once? Besides, Gary and I are celebrating our 32nd anniversary on this trip, so this was our treat to ourselves. It was actually very enjoyable – everyone on the bridges stopped to call out to us and took pictures as we floated along and sipped our champagne.

After the gondola ride we were still in a mood to celebrate, so we stopped in at several bars for drinks before going back to Sangal to have dinner on the terrace. Since we were ordering for ourselves this time, we confined ourselves to just two courses. I had ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, seafood, and asparagus tips for an entrée, and tiramisu for dessert (homemade, of course). Yum. I just know I’m going to gain weight while I’m here.

After dinner, we went back to Piazza San Marco, which has more of a party atmosphere at night (not to mention being much cooler), and mingled with the people there before heading back to the hotel.